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Karma
Karma is a central focus of inFamous, reflecting the choices the player makes. In game Nearly everything Cole does reflects on him either positively or negatively, affecting the way the story plays out, how characters react to him, the nature of his powers and finally the ending of the game itself. For example, taking the time to heal injured civilians or taking your enemies alive instead of killing them will grant you positive karma, causing the citizens of Empire City to look at you with awe and respect. On the other hand, killing innocent people or victimizing human beings to recharge yourself will grant you negative karma, making you a monstrous figure of fear to the city. Karmatic Moments In addition, Karmatic Moments occur throughout the storyline, making Cole choose between good and evil options. Using the first one as an example, Cole must choose between taking an entire shipment of food for himself, guaranteeing that he and his friends will have food for weeks at the cost of innocent people starving, or he could let the civilians take their fair share, at the cost of being unsure that he and his friends will have enough to eat in the future. On the whole, Good Karma options reflect the qualities of mercy, compassion, respect for order and self-sacrifice (essentially similar in style to Batman), while Evil Karma options demonstrate the qualities of ruthlessness, recklessness, selfishness and a disdain for human life (essentially similar in style to Venom). The Meter As Cole interacts with the world and makes choices in Karma Moments, his karma is tallied up on a six-segmented meter. As he becomes more good or evil, his rank on the meter will alter accordingly. In addition to having a cosmetic affect on Cole and his powers (with good ranks, Cole shoots blue lightning; with evil ranks, it's red), this determines the way his abilities will evolve. There are six upgrades for all the major abilities in the game, three good and three evil, with each of the three levels unlocked by obtaining a certain rank. This means you cannot buy a basic evil upgrade unless your rank is Thug or higher, and you cannot buy the ultimate good upgrade unless you are a Hero. It should be noted that the upgrades themselves are also tied into your rank; if you improve an ability with all three good upgrades, but then your evil actions cause you to drop from Hero to Champion, you will no longer be able to use the Hero upgrade until you work your way back up. It is actually possible to obtain all six upgrades for each power but you will only ever be able to use one side or the other at a time. In addition, two powers, Arc Lightning and Overload Burst, are unlocked and upgraded by performing Evil and Good side missions, respectively. Since every time you perform a Good mission, an Evil mission is locked out (and vice-versa), it is impossible to ever have both Overload Burst and Arc Lightning fully upgraded at the same time. Ranks Here are the ranks: Evil: *Thug *Outlaw *Infamous Good: *Guardian *Champion *Hero Neutral The first Rank (either Thug or Guardian) is passed during First Glimpse, the first mission. The second Rank (either Outlaw or Champion) is passed during High Ground, the seventh mission. The third Rank (Infamous or Hero) is passed during either Spy Drones, Standard Protocol or Alden Strikes. 'Trophies' Many trophies are directly related to karma and karmatic moment decisions. The most extreme trophies are (To get both of the following trophies two playthroughs will likely have to be completed): Goody two shoes, which requires full positive karma. Truly Infamous, which requires full negative karma Effects on Game There are several things that will be affected by karma. When you have good karma, the ending will have Empire City's background rebuilt with a blue sky over the city. It reduces the amount of corpses and crime across the city, people will admire you, respect you, worship you, and when you walk by people they'll say stuff like "Cole, my man", and girls will say "OMG Cole just passed me." If you have evil karma, Empire City will have a red and dark sky over it and more corpses appear on the streets, people will hate you, fear you, and run away from you, and people will throw rocks at you and beat you up ( it only happens at karmic rank infamous). This is due to the increase of crime in the city. Note: evil karma ending looks exactly the same as Empire City just after the Blast when Cole wakes up at Ground Zero in the Crater, and good will show all the good things that happened in the past, barely any enemies, and most will not attack you. Category:Karma Category:Gameplay